Saturday, June 20, 2009

CNN: Supersonic Flight Returns?

Too early to call it a sure thing but it looks as if we may see the return of commercial supersonic travel in our lifetimes! And the weird part? They're talkin' about "quieter sonic booms." Hey, if that's what it takes....
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4 comments:

  1. Ed RasimusJune 20, 2009 at 10:00 AM

    Strong message from Al Gore to follow.

    Can you imagine the bleating of the carbon footprint police?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 20, 2009 at 1:37 PM

    By adjusting the shape of the planes wings and tail you can adjust the focus to the shock wave. In doing this you can reduce the angle width of the cone from same 75 degrees down to 40 so that the sound has to travel much farther before hitting the ground. This dissipates the sound (shock wave) to lower levels. Kind of like a suppressor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 20, 2009 at 2:38 PM

    If there is a market and access to it isn't regulated to death, then this will happen, one way or the other.

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  4. homebruJune 21, 2009 at 12:16 PM

    It isn't just the booms.

    Back when Braniff brought the Concorde into/out of DFW, the Sunday morning departures went over my house at over five thousand feet up. The Concord was louder at that distance than a 737 at a couple of hundred yards.

    And that was definitely sub-sonic.

    ReplyDelete

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